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BBC tackles ageing in its new primetime season

Confronting the issues facing the elderly has become one of the UK’s biggest priorities and BBC One, together with some of Britain’s most familiar faces from television, is tackling the issue.

In July, a mix of personalities and Britain’s elderly will address a range of issues in primetime television, taking on everything from working past the age of retirement to what it’s like to live in a care home.

Gathered under the title “When I'm 65”, BBC One will air throughout the summer a range of powerful and thought-provoking programmes that explore the reality of life for many older people, and the choices they face.

In “The Town That Never Retired” television personalities Nick Hewer, 68, and Margaret Mountford, 60, follow 15 retired pensioners heading back to work. The pair uncovers some startling truths as the pensioners head back to work on a construction site, a chocolate factory, an Italian restaurant, a health clinic and an estate agent. How will their bosses, fellow workers and the public react to a more mature workforce?

In “When I Get Older” broadcaster Gloria Hunniford, 71; actor Lesley Joseph, 69; actor and historian Tony Robinson, 65; and BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson, 67, immerse themselves in the lives of pensioners and care homes. They each move in with a pensioner experiencing one of the toughest problems facing senior citizens in the UK.

In “June Brown: Respect Your Elders” actress June Brown, 85, sets out to meet well-known faces and elderly people from all walks of life to find out how they really feel about society’s attitude towards growing old.

“How To Live Beyond 100” meets centenarians across the country who explain what it means to have watched the world change around them. A quarter of all children born today are expected to live beyond 100 - this programme is an uplifting look at what it’s really like to live to 100 and beyond.

The BBC One season will be accompanied by interviews, radio phone-ins and features across the network, including a series of in-depth features and discussions on “You and Yours”, the BBC Radio 4 consumer affairs programme.